


The Awakening of Iron Man and Hermes

by underworld_kings18



Series: The Adventures of the Time Travelling Assassin [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Flash (TV 2014), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, BAMF Number Five | The Boy, BAMF Tony Stark, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Disclaimer, Eating Disorders, Embedded Images, Energy absorption, F/M, Gen, Genetic Enhancements, Hurt/Comfort, Multiple Crossovers, Pre-The Flash (TV 2014), Seizures, Teleportation, adult!five hargreeves, but when adding characters from other shows, concussion blasts, good!reginald hargreeves, i cant make em sorry, i do not own any of the gifs added i swear, i mean like i try to stay true to the movie, it gets a little bit messy, over two weeks rather than 3 days, post the umbrella academy season 1, power dampener, power exhastion, somewhat canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:08:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28136727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underworld_kings18/pseuds/underworld_kings18
Summary: five hargreeves has worked alongside tony stark for the last 7 years, working on projects on behalf of both stark industries and hargreeves international, bringing their companies into the 21st century and turning the companies into multi-billion dollar industrieswhen obadiah stane arranges for tony stark to be kidnapped by the ten rings, five is caught in the middle of a dispute over stark industries. and five isn't about to let his best friend get hurt over petty issues like this
Series: The Adventures of the Time Travelling Assassin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053680
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	1. Prologue

__

__

_"_ _kid, i never wanted you involved in this."_

_"try and tear me away, i dare you."_

_"i'd have better luck lifting a car with my bare hands i know."_

five finishes wiring the last circuit, making a noise of satisfaction.

"done?" tony called.

"all good." five confirmed.

"so, you come up with a name then?" tony asked, sliding into the stool beside Five and handing him his drink, just as he asked.

"actually, i think i'll use an old one." five mused, memories of a previous life floating through his head. "hermes."

"so be it." tony held his own glass up. "to iron man and hermes."

"here here." their glasses clinked together in cheers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUEST STARRING;  
> gwyneth paltrow as virginia 'pepper' potts  
> terrence howard as james 'rhodey' rhodes  
> jeff bridges as obadiah 'obie' stane  
> robert sheehan as klaus hargreeves  
> elliot page as vanya hargreeves  
> colm feore as reginald hargreeves  
> and  
> grant gustin as barry allen
> 
> authors note  
> and phase 2 begins with iron man 1! please understand that while i know the 3 months in afghanistan are an important part of the movies and comics, i wasn't able to write it. those kinds of things aren't my strong suit, so i'm sorry


	2. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> afghanistan...

__

__

_7 years later...._   
_kunar province, afghanistan..._   
_february, 2008..._

Of all of the decisions Tony Stark had made regarding a certain time travelling child superhero and ex-assassin, and lets be honest, he'd made a fair few bad decisions regarding the kid, bringing him to Afghanistan had been the worst one he had ever made, which said a lot.

He'd originally been dead set against it, but Five was one of the most stubborn people he'd ever met, and when he set his sights on something nothing could persuade him otherwise. The kid was set to inherit his fathers company in November of that year, so Tony eventually conceded that the trip would be good PR for the third joint venture between Stark Industries and Hargreeves International. He just hadn't known just how damn bad a 3 day trip was going to be. With Five's powers being a closely kept secret, he and Tony had agreed that it wasn't worth risking anyone finding out that he could teleport or time travel, nor was he letting anyone find out he was Hermes, the Umbrella Academy kid superhero that retired a year or so ago. Which meant that Five is unfortunately privy to the conversations happening in the Humvee as they drove back towards the base after the Jericho Weapons Demonstration. He's sitting in the back of the Humvee, arms crossed as he texts his sister about their dinner plans for when he's back stateside, trying valiantly to ignore his friend and co-conspirator, according to Rhodey. The two of them wreaked a lot of havoc together.

"I feel like you're driving us to a court-martial." Tony said, breaking the silence from the pure awkwardness coming from the three soldiers. "This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!"

"We can talk, sir."

"Well, i wouldn't want to talk to you if it was possible." Five snarked under his breath, the kid in front of him snorting. Tony rolled his eyes, having long learned to ignore Five's snark.

"Oh, I see. So it's personal?"

"No, you intimidate them." At that Five snorted, hard, locking his phone and leaning over the seat between Tony and Jimmy.

"This guy?" Five arched a brow. "He intimidates you? Puh-lease. He's about as intimidating as a golden retriever puppy." Tony twisted in his seat and pointed a finger at Five, who mimed biting it with a sharp grin that looked completely feral. Tony snatched his hand back, the airmen all chuckling at the behaviour.

"You shut your face, four eyes." Five glared at the reminder that he now needed glasses. When it happened the first time around he figured it was a side effect of being stuck in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. But when he was about 16 his eyesight began deteriorating and he had to start using glasses and contacts. He was wearing glasses right now, since experience told him contacts dried out in the sun to easily. Instead Five just scoffed.

"Weak insult, metal head. Give me that." Five snatched Tony's drink off him and Tony just rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to the conversation with the airmen.

"Good God, you're a woman. I honestly... I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."

"I'm an airman." She replied flatly.

"Well you have, actually, excellent bone structure, there. I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" Five snorted, while the soldiers all laugh. "Come on, it's okay, laugh."

"Sir, I have a question to ask." The soldier sitting in the front seat said, turning slightly. Five finished the whiskey and put the glass under the seat, turning his attention to the conversation.

"Yes, please."

"Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year's Maxim cover models?" He asked.

"That is an excellent question. Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins. Anything else?" Jimmy, the soldier beside Tony raised his hand, much to Five's amusement. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?"

"Kid you don't need to put your hand up." Five said at the same time.

"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?" Jimmy asked, ignoring Five.

"Yes. It's very cool." Jimmy grinned and pulled out his camera, handing it to the soldier in the passenger seat. "I don't want to see this on your My Space page." Jimmy put up a peace sign. "Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."

"Come on. Hurry up. Just click it. Don't change any settings. Just click it." Jimmy hurried the other soldier. Just as he went to hit the button something hit and the Humvee exploded in front of them. Five jerked, eyes wide as gunshots hit the side of their vehicle.

"What's going on?" Tony asked, mildly panicked.

"Contact left!" Someone shouted.

"What have we got?" Five asked, armed. He hadn't been allowed his gun, much to his dismay, but he had his knives. The driver got out of the car and was immediately shot, falling with a dull thud. Five climbed over the back seat, sitting in between Jimmy and Tony.

"Jimmy, stay with Stark and Hargreeves!" The second soldier shouted.

"Stay down!" Jimmy told them both.

"Yeah." Tony agreed readily, Five just nodding. The other soldier got out of the car but he too was shot down.

"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy swore.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Five swore as Jimmy slid out of the vehicle, much to their shock.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Give me a gun!" Tony protested but Jimmy held firm.

"Stay here!" He shouted at them both. Then, much to their absolute horror he was gunned down, bullets piercing through him and into the vehicle. One sliced right through Five's leg, and he bit back a shout of pain as they scrambled out of the vehicle. Tony and Five both hit the dust hard, and suddenly Five felt as though he was back in the apocalypse, dust and smoke filling his lungs. Tony stumbled, ducking gunfire and latching his hand around Five's bicep, pulling the younger man away. Five shook his head, glasses long gone, panic still seeping into his mind and gripping hold as Tony took out his phone, trying to call for help when a bomb lands next to them, freezing them in their place.

"Oh shit." The bomb read 'Stark Industries' on the side. Tony didn't think, just shoved Five out of the way and it exploded, throwing them both back several feet through the air.

"Whoa!" Tony cried as they both hit the ground, hard. Pain shot through Tony, blood pooling on his chest. Pain gripped Five's senses, his leg and arm burning from the impact before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> authors note  
> welcome to phase 2!! iron man 1 is introduced now, and i am not writing the 3 months as the ten rings prisoners. i might, later, but i had no idea how to even go about it yet
> 
> enjoy!


	3. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> returning to the united states...

_ _

_ 3 months later... _   
_ air force transport... _   
_ may 6th, 2008... _

When he woke up, the ground underneath him was vibrating. He took stock of his body, pain lancing through his fingers with each curl of them, but nothing that wouldn't heal within a few hours of consuming some food. There was an IV in his left arm, a hand on his elbow, holding over the IV, probably so it didn't slip out since he was notorious for shifting restlessly in his sleep. His bullet wound ached, his left foot was definitely sprained and his abdomen tugged with fresh stitches, but he was otherwise unharmed.

"Hey, strawberry shortcake, you back with me?" Five blinked his eyes open as the floor shuddered under them, and he realised he was in an Air Force transport. Memories of the past several months flashed through his mind, but he was mostly hazy after Yinsen was killed in the explosion before he was knocked out completely. He jerked, but the hand on his arm prevented him from going far. "Take it easy kid, it's just me."

"More or less." He mumbled in reply to the first question. "Damn, what happened? How long was i out?"

"I got us outta there." Tony informed him seriously. "Honeybear found us in the desert. You've been unconscious for 6 hours. You've got an IV of antibiotics in you, but you kept moving so i had ta hold your arm still. They gave you IV ibuprofen, and re-did the stitches in your side. No sedatives or narcotics, as per orders."

"Oh good." Five looked up at Tony. "Told ya we'd get outta there." Tony barked out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh, shaking his head.

"It was my fault you were there to begin with, kid."

"Don't call me kid. And I wasn't about to let you go without me, Stark." Five said, voice deadpan. "But let's go with its nobodies fault and move on." Tony frowned disapprovingly.

"Your dad is going to kill me." A laugh burst from Five, only for him to cough. His chest burned from the force, and Tony quickly helped him upright.

"Fuck, that's a bitch." Five groaned, slumping against Tony's chest, the energy leaving him. The older man winced once, but only adjusted the 20-year-old so he wasn't leaning against his reactor but his shoulder. "I don't think dad's the one you have to worry about, Stark."

"Right. You have six superpowered siblings." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Relax, Tones." Five reached up and patted his chest, mindful of the arc reactor. "They'll wait a week, a month at most."

"Oh, exciting."

"Can you remove the cuffs?" Five asked, looking down at the thin silver cuffs encircling both his wrists. He'd long gotten used to the pain that had been caused by them in the beginning, the skin around and under them mostly numb.

"Rhodey said they were mutant suppressant cuffs with vibranium casing. I might have something in my lab that'll remove em."

"How did they even get their hands on enough Vibranium to make them?"

"I have no clue kid." Tony shrugged.

"So trial and error, huh." Any pain that had been caused by them had mostly been from whatever the cuff did to counteract his powers, but Five had 3 months to study them and he still couldn't figure it out. His hands had vines of electric blue energy running across them, up to where the cuff was. They figured it was a by-product of the cuffs power supply. "I, we have to get them off."

"We will, kid." Tony assured, sensing the panic in Five's voice. He'd had two panic attacks when he realised they'd somehow knew about his powers. The realisation had hit him hard, knowing he was nearly completely defenceless without his powers had Tony even more determined to protect the kid. He knew some of Five's old life, but the gist was he had a team while working as a time assassin, and he'd lost them, and that he couldn't even dream to protect those he cared about from the Handler, his ex-boss, if he didn't have them. Tony glanced up at Rhodey who was watching them both with concern clear on his face as the two POW's sat on the floor of the plane.

_malibu, california..._   
_air force base..._

Their return, recovery and subsequent decision to move on from Weapons manufacturing to clean energy was something they had discussed the moment they had realised the ten rings had somehow gotten access to Stark weaponry. When they arrived back on US soil, Five was more or less back to full energy and ignored the pain in his leg knowing it would heal perfectly by the morning. He practically ordered the medic to remove the IV, pinning him with a homicidal glare until he did so. So he walked down the ramp by himself, Tony and Rhodey on his right. He didn't notice the medics coming until they were right beside him and he snapped.

"Touch me and i'll break your fingers." He threatened, startling them.

"Are you kidding me with this? Get rid of them, and keep em away from Five." Tony agreed. Rhodey did, the two medics backing off. Five relaxed a bit, stepping just a bit closer to Tony.

"Kid, you can't threaten civilians like that." Rhodey said disapprovingly.

"I don't care, Rhodes." Five glanced at the Colonel, then over to the car they were walking towards, and his eyebrows shot up at who was waiting for him. "Nobodies touching me unless i say so."

"Your eyes are red." Tony said as he stopped in front of Pepper and Happy. Five tuned them out, however, when he made eye contact with Klaus and Vanya.

"Hey Van, Klaus." Five stuck his hands into the pockets of the suit Rhodey brought him to change into, mostly to hide the blue on his hands for the moment.

"Are you okay?" Vanya asked earnestly, eyes firmly on him.

"I'm... coping." He settled on. "When did you get to Cali?"

"We came as soon as your soldier friend told dad." Klaus bounced on his toes. "Tall, dark and handsome over there's been keeping us up to date."

"Stop leering at him, Klaus." Five rolled his eyes, glancing over at Tony and Pep. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're all fine. Dad's stuck in London on business till Wednesday." Vanya told him. "But he'll be here as soon as he can."

"Ready to go?" Tony interrupted. "We have plans, remember." Five raised an eyebrow at Tony, as if to say ' _of course i remember, dumbass_ '.

"You can take the second car." Pepper assured the three siblings. Five glanced at Tony, trying to suppress the anxiety at being away from Tony so soon. They'd spent 3 months practically joint at the hip, first so Five could help Tony get around with the massive car battery attached to his chest, and then later when Five had been stabbed and Tony and Ho Yinsen had kept him alive. Tony had done everything in his powers to protect Five those three months, and in return Five had done the same thing.

"Go with them." Vanya urged, giving her brothers shoulder a quick squeeze. "We'll follow you."

"I've missed you two." Five declared, grinning at his siblings.

"Of course you did." Klaus scoffed.

"Tell me, you have alcohol?" Vanya laughed softly, but obligingly handed the young man a hip flask.

"It's Glenfiddich single malt." She grinned. "Stole it from dads stash before we flew out."

"You're the best."

"Oh!" Klaus quickly pulled what looked to be a protein bar out of his pocket, handing it to Five. The teleporter recognised them as Klaus spoke in a low voice. "Mom is worried that, all this, might have set back all the progress we made with your eating disorder." Five was, unfortunately, acutely aware that his extended time in captivity had set him back a lot, as they learnt on the plane that he wasn't able to eat solid food without the need to immediately throw it back up. He'd originally hoped it was just a stress of being kidnapped, but it was not the case.

"Fuck." Five sighed. "Thanks, Klaus." They separated, Five getting into the passenger seat of Happy's car as his siblings went to the second car. The bodyguard was used to Five refusing to sit in the back of the car and didn't say anything other than an eye roll.

"Where to, sir?" Happy asked.

"Take us to the hospital, please." Pepper replied before them.

"No." Five and Tony both replied instantly.

"No? Tony..." Pepper frowned. "You have to go to the hospital. Both of you."

"I don't have to do anything and Five doesn't do hospitals." Tony corrected, not expecting Five to actually speak up. Tony was biologically older, therefore the world assumed he knew more. It was infuriating, but unless he told anyone the truth he was just a 20-year-old child genius smart enough to get an internship with Stark at 12. "We were in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger..."

"Ugh, cheeseburger." Five groaned around a mouthful of his protein bar. "God, i wish i could eat one."

"Why can't you eat a cheeseburger, kid?" Happy asked, curious. Five waved a hand, getting comfortable.

"I have an eating disorder. All this has fucked up all the process i've made." Five pouted a little, irritated.

"Kid.."

"Shut up, Stark." Five levelled him with a glare through the mirror. "Don't make me smack you."

"Fine, fine. And the other one..."

"That's not going to happen." Pepper disagreed, cutting him off with an eye roll. Five grimaced and took a swig from his flask, finishing his bar when he was sure it wasn't going to come straight back up.

"It's not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now." Tony explained.

"Call for a press conference? What on earth for?"

Yeah, Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first." Happy left, and Five settled back into his seat. Tony looked at Five, noticing the tension visible in his posture and immediately made a quip about throwing knives that caught the kid's attention. He went off on a tangent, but Tony watched as some of the tension leak from his shoulders and considered it a successful mission.


	4. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the press conference...

_ stark industries... _   
_ same day... _   
_may, 2008..._   
  


It was Obadiah Stane that greeted them when the car pulled up at Stark Industries Headquarters in Malibu. The man opened the door for Tony, immediately pulling the genius into a hug. As the staff and reporters clapped, Five slipped out of the passenger seat and leant heavily against the car, his ribs aching slightly.

"We were going to meet you at the hospital." Obie said, patting his arms.

"No, we're fine." Tony assured. Obie looked over at Five, giving him a genuine smile.

"It's good to see you made it out relatively unscathed, Five." Obie held his hand out and Five shook it.

"Thank you Mr Stane." Five said smartly, reluctantly returning the smile and running a hand through his longer than normal hair. First thing on his agenda was a haircut, only then did he remember the scar that his longer hair currently hid, and pushed the idea out of his head for the time being.

"Look at you!" Obie grinned between them both as Happy and Pepper rounded the car and Klaus and Vanya exited the second, coming up beside their brother. Happy handed Tony the paper bag that had the cheeseburger in it. Five had lived vicariously through him for that. "You had to have a burger, yeah?" Obie chuckled.

"Well, come on."

"You get me one of those." Five, Vanya, Klaus and Pepper followed a step behind Obie and Tony.

"Uh, there's only one left. I need it." Tony said, looking earnest. They headed inside, Tony smiling and waving at the reporters and camera crews as photos were taken from all angles. Five pulled himself up, making sure he looked the picture of health with only the bruise on his jaw visible, hands tucked away into his pockets.

"Hey look who's here!"

"Yeah!" Obie started directing Tony towards the crowd, but the man stopped quickly and turned his head towards Five.

"Coming?"

"Course, sir." Five winked and stepped up beside him, leaving his siblings to stand with Pepper. While Five, Tony and Obie moved through the crowd, the three standing at the back were approached by SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson.

"Excuse me, Miss Potts?"

"Yes?" She asked, turning towards him. Klaus arched a brow at the agent, eyes glancing over the small collection of ghosts that surrounded the man. Several of them were not human, his eyebrows going up further.

"Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"I'm not part of the press conference, but it's about to begin right now." Pepper replied, thinking he was a reporter.

"I'm not a reporter. I'm Agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." Phil held out his business card.

"Quite the mouthful, Agent." Vanya said casually, crossing her arms. At her height of 5ft 1 inches she wasn't all that intimidating, especially beside Miss Potts who was nearly 6ft in heels and Klaus, who was 6ft 3 inches in the heels he was wearing, but clearly Coulson knew who she was, because he took a minute step away from them. Pepper took the business card from him.

"I know. We're working on it."

"You know, we've been approached by already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA..."

"We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr Stark and Mr Hargreeves about the circumstances of their escape." Pepper huffed out a laugh.

"I'll put something in the book, shall i?"

"Thank you." Coulson nodded as the press conference started and they all turned their attention to the podium.

"Lets get this started. Uh..." Obie trailed off and glanced down at the floor, where Tony and Five had taken to sitting. They were both sitting with their backs to the podium, shoulders brushing and Tony gave everyone a look as he spoke.

"Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down?" Tony asked, pulling the cheeseburger out of his pocket. He held his good arm up, making a downwards motion as Obie stepped around the podium to glance down at them. "Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can..." The reporters all sat down, looking a little perplexed as they did. "A little less formal, wouldn't you agree kid?"

"I would." Five nodded his head. Tony took a bite out of his burger and Obie sat down too.

"What's up with the love-in?" Rhodey asked Pepper.

"Don't look at me." Pepper shrugged. "I don't know what he's up too."

"I bet he's doing it for Five." Klaus added lowly. Pepper and Rhodey looked at him curiously. "Fivey's likely got broken ribs or a sprained ankle from the way he's walking and our billionaire is trying to accommodate for it by being his usual eccentric self." Back at the stage Tony and Five were looking at Obie, who was clearly amused.

"Good to see you." Tony said quietly.

"Good to see you." Obie returned.

"I never got to say goodbye to dad." Tony said to Obie, then turned his attention more towards the reporters and raised his voice. Obie's hand dropped off his shoulder. "I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I- We saw young Americans killed by the very weapons we created to defend them and protect them." Five looked down, hands aching, still hidden from the cameras. Obie was frowning now. "And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."

"Mr Stark?" One of the reporters asked, raising his hand.

"Hey, Ben."

"What happened over there?" He asked carefully.

"I had my eyes opened." Tony said loudly, getting back to his feet. Five quickly followed, hands going into his pockets as Tony rounded the podium. "I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries." The reporters all jump to their feet. Pepper, Klaus and Vanya all stare in shock and Obie is up on his feet just as fast. "Until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be."

"I think we're going to be selling a lot of newspapers." Obie was trying to push Tony away, but Five just stepped closer to stop the man a warning look in his eye.

"What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country as well." Tony put his hand on Five's shoulder and lead him away from the stage, both of them ignoring the uproar of questions from all the reporters as Obie tried to return order to the group.

"What we should take away from this is that Tony's back! And he'd healthier than ever. We're going to have a little internal discussion and we'll get back to you with the follow-up."  
  


_ stark mansion... _   
_ malibu, california... _   
_ may, 2008... _

While Tony went into SI to speak to Obie, Five's newly hired bodyguard drove the three siblings back to Tony's beach house. Five directed his siblings into the house, speaking quickly with the bodyguard.

"You got a phone number or a way of contacting you, should I be leaving the house?" Five asked, arching a brow. "I assume I can't go anywhere without you."

"You would be correct, sir." She replied easily. "My name is Camille Samuels. You're father hired me to keep you safe. Mr Hogan assured me you could contact me through... Jarvis?"

"Ah." Five nodded. "Thank you, ma'am." Five closed the door as she turned to leave, and he headed straight for the bar where his siblings were. Klaus was still staying sober, was now seven years sober, but Vanya had no issues with drinking. Five made up two margaritas, one a mocktail, and then they sat on the sofa.

"Alright, Fivey, what's with the fancy jewellery?" Klaus asked, pointing to the now exposed hands and wrists. Instinctively he tucked his hands away.

"They knew." The siblings straightened, looking at their brother. "They knew about my powers somehow. I don't- I haven't a damn fucking clue how. Come on." Five threw back the rest of his drink and headed for the lab, entering his access code and slipping inside. "Hello, JARVIS."

" **Good afternoon, Five. Can I say it's good to have you back and well**."

"Thanks, J." Five murmured. "Let Tony know we're down here when he gets back."

" **Of course**."

"Can you run a scan on the cuffs on my wrists?" Five asked, activating the hologram and holding his wrists out, sleeves now pushed up. Vanya and Klaus took up sitting on the step, just keeping their eyes on Five.

" **Scanning. Scan complete**." JARVIS replied. " **The cuffs appear to be a mix of steel, lead and small traces of vibranium. There are also small traces of something I haven't been able to identify. Are there any side effects aside from the blue veins?** "

"It's like my powers are completely gone." Five admitted. "Even when dad used that tech to make our powers inert for self-defence training I could still feel them, knew they were there. But this, it's like a hole in my chest, and I'm looking for it and I can't- I can't feel it."

" **I see**." JARVIS replied. There was a small mechanical hum that filled the room, then JARVIS continued. " **I believe you can remove the cuffs**."

"How?"


	5. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the science binge and the arc reactor...

_stark mansion... _   
_ malibu, california... _   
_ 2 days later... _

The following two days were what everyone who knew Five and Tony had called a science binge. Tony had locked down his lab, only allowing Rhodey and Pepper access in an absolute emergency, and the two of them had doubled down and started working on an upgraded arc reactor for Tony's chest. By the time they'd finished it, Five was on his last legs and Tony ushered him into the room he kept off the lab. Tony knew damn well why Five wasn't going home yet, partly because of his own reluctance to part from the kid and partly because, despite how stubborn Five is, he absolutely hates being alone. It helps that the lab has minimal natural lighting and can, in a crisis, be locked down and made impenetrable.

"Come on kid." He grabbed the first aid kit from under the coffee maker and directed him into the bathroom. "I'm gonna bandage your arm and foot, then you're gonna get some shut eye."

"Yeah, alright." Tony pushed Five to sit on the closed toilet lid and efficiently unwrapped his hand, slathering savlon on the exposed burn and cut, then covering it again. He then repeated the process with the bottom of Five's foot, pretending he didn't notice the full body flinch he gave, and then shoved him into the bedroom.

"Sleep. When you wake up, we'll get started." Five passed out, and when he woke up a few hours later it was to Pepper and Tony bickering as she replaced the old reactor with the new one. He stumbled out of the room with wild bed head and headed straight for the coffee maker with only a small limp, ignoring the fact that Pepper had her hand inside her bosses chest cavity. Pepper made a disgusted noise as Five poured his cup, and when he turned it was to see Tony laughing and Pepper holding her hand out, covered in some kind of clear fluid looking absolutely disgusted.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do something like that ever again."

"I don't have anyone but you." Five made an offended noise and Tony corrected himself immediately. "I don't have anyone but you and Five. And his hands aren't small enough anymore." He gave her a half grin and they stared at each other for a brief moment, then Pepper turned away. "Anyway..." Tony took all the leads off and stood, Pepper shaking her hands out in disgust and wiping them on the towel she'd put the old reactor on.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asked as Five wandered over, sipping his black coffee. He sat in a rolly stool and slid over to one of the benches.

"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it." Tony tapped his new reactor.

"You don't want to keep it?" Pepper was a little confused by that.

"Pepper, I've been called many things. Nostalgic is not one of them."

"Ain't that right." Five muttered.

"Shut up, superboy." Tony shot back without breaking eye contact with Pepper.

"Will that be all, Mr Stark?" Pepper enquired, still holding the reactor.

"That will be all, Miss Potts." Tony turned away, pointing towards one of his robots. "Hey, Butterfingers, come here. What's all this stuff doing on top of my desk? That's my phone, that's a picture of me and my dad. Right there. In the garbage. All that stuff."

"Hey Tones, come here a sec would ya?" Five called, leaning over something on the desk. Tony yanked on an AC/DC t-shirt and headed over to the young genius' work station.

"You got it?" Tony asked.

"Yeah." Five nodded. "J ran the simulations. This is the most likely thing to cut through these damn cuffs."

"Alright, let's do this." They made quick work of covering exposed skin and putting on welding masks. Tony lifted the small yet powerful circular saw and started it up. "Ready?"

"There is a chance of a potential build up of energy, like what happens when i've been sedated." Five warned. "Be prepared."

"You got it kid."

"Kay, do it." Five pulled his mask down, and Tony lowered the saw to the metal. It sparked, and Five grunted, but the metal snapped fairly quickly and Tony was fast to repeat it on the other wrist. The skin underneath was raw red and cracked, but the blue veins instead appeared as a glow of energy around his hands. Five quickly removed his helmet, clenched his fists. Power crackled over his hands, and then he was on the other side of the lab. A grin spread across his face, jumping again so he was beside Butterfingers.

"Good to have you back, kiddo."

"Thanks!" Five couldn't keep the bright grin from spreading across his face.

"C'mon, I'll clean up those wrists for ya."  
  
  
  


_hargreeves beach house..._   
_malibu, california..._   
_a few hours later..._

Five headed back to the beach house Hargreeves owned in Malibu, where his dad had told him he could live while Stark was working out of his California headquarters. He headed inside, removing his jacket and tie and throwing it over the back of an arm chair before sprawling out across the large sofa.

He knew that Klaus and Vanya had headed back to New York but that he was coming back out in a few weeks for a vacation of sorts - Five didn't mind, since he spent most of his time working in his lab, Tony's lab or drunk, sometimes both. He must have dozed off, because when he woke up it was dark and there was a blanket covering him. Someone had taken his shoes off too, and while his first thought went to Vanya, only to remember that she wasn't here, but a quick glance over at the reading nook he had identified it as none other than Reginald Hargreeves. It had taken Five and his siblings a long time to get over the trauma they'd lived through the first time they'd grown up, but their new and improved parents had done a lot to make up for what alternate him had done.

Five had ended up going to MIT at 14 and getting two doctorates by 18, one in nuclear astrophysics and the other in mechanical engineering, specialising in creating new technology and robotics. He got an undergrad in Computer science at the same time, and had been working towards a masters in advanced cryptography when the kidnapping had happened. Five levelled himself upright, wrapping the blanket tighter around his shoulders before walking over and sitting in the other armchair. His dad placed a bookmark in and closed the book, placing it on the table.

"How are you, Five?" Reginald asked. He made a point to use the names he'd given them rather than the numbers he'd assigned them, which was another contrast to the Reginald they remembered. It was the name Five had chosen, as it was gender neutral and it helped ground him, and Reginald and Grace respected that choice and called him that.

"I've felt worse." Five replied, looking out of the large window over the ocean.

"Vanya said that you had power suppressant cuffs on." Reginald said. "Do you know anything about them?" But Five was shaking his head.

"There's a substance that we couldn't identify that was in the metal. I think that's what made the cuffs work, but J's still scanning them in more depth. I'll send you the report it when I get it."

"Very well." Reginald removed his monocle, cleaning it. "I am sorry I wasn't there to greet you at the Air Base."

"Don't be." Five shook his head. "Vanya and Klaus explained. Did you see the press conference?"

"I did. Mr Stark is making a risky choice closing down the weapons manufacturing division." Reginald placed his monocle back on and looked at Five properly. "What happened out there, Five?"

"They had Stark Weaponry." Five refused to look at Reginald, instead focusing his gaze on his bandaged wrists, picking at the edge of the gauze. "They attacked the convoy on the way back to base, after we showcased the Jericho weapon. I got shot in the leg, and then while Mr Stark was trying to call for help a bomb with Stark Industries labelled on the side blew us up." Five inhaled shakily. "I, woke up in a cave, almost a week later without my powers. I took quite a bit of damage to the side of my head." Five lifted his hair, showing the long jagged scar that his longer hair covered. "And to my leg. Now, I've done a lot of things. I lived for 45 years in the apocalypse. I spent 4 years as an assassin. I was shot, stabbed and blown up in the span of a week, and yet the things I saw over there." Five cut himself off with a shuddering breath, shaking his head. "Let's just say it was the worst experience of my very long life and leave it at that."

"I don't suppose I can convince you to speak to a therapist?" Five snorted, hard, shaking his head. Reginald knew better than to push Five on the subject, so he changed it.

"Will you still be visiting for the summer as usual? Your mother has missed you dearly." A small smile appeared on Five's face.

"I missed her too. I'll be there, even if i'm a little late."

"Good." Reginald hesitated. "I am glad you are alright, my son."

"Thanks, dad."  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> authors note  
> i'm trying to keep to five's character as much as possible. i can see him refusing to speak to a therapist until he ends up doing something that puts someone he loves at risk. i'm spreading out the timeline a bit as i've already said, so beware.
> 
> enjoy dudes


	6. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the start of the iron man and hermes suits creation...

_12 hours later..._

It's half a day later when Five surfaced from his own lab, equipped with new tech, and called Camille for a ride to Stark's place. Waiting for her, Five drank 4 cups of coffee, two laced with whisky. He packed up the tech into a secure box, then exited his home and slid into Camille's car.

"Where to, boss?"

"Stark's house. I have a few things to run by him."

"Yes sir."

Five had to use his override code to get into the lab, armed with coffee and his box.

"Kid, get over here." Tony lit up at seeing Five, jerking his head. Five put the box down on an empty bit of desk, lifting the two cups of coffee off the box and headed over, handing the one with cream and sugar to Tony while keeping the black one for himself. "Give me that." He took the coffee off Five, who protested. "You'll get it back. Go stand on the 'x' and let J scan you."

"Why?" Five asked, brow furrowed.

"Trust me, kid." Five stared at Tony for a moment then nodded, yanking off his MIT hoodie and moving to stand on the 'x'. A blue light scanned down Five, first at the front then the back.

" **Scan complete.** " JARVIS informed them. " **Creating rendering.** " Tony activated the holotable, and the scan of Five appeared, spinning in a slow circle. " **Rendering complete. Shall I begin running the simulations, sir?** "

"Do it." Tony nodded. "Now kid. Those 3 months we were stuck in that cave, I didn't realise how much I actually cared about you. As in family, cared about you." Five stood frozen, eyes wide. "And I've realised that I need to do everything in my power to protect you. And I know you can protect yourself, that you're as old as dirt and you're an assassin. But those 3 months you didn't have your powers kid, and it scared the shit out of me."

"It scared me too." Five admitted, his voice quiet. "I've never, been without my powers like that before. I mean, I didn't have em during the apocalypse. Wasn't enough oxygen to use em, you know? But that was..." Five trailed off, frustrated.

"You were powerless." Tony finished. Five nodded, grimacing. Tony ploughed through anyway. "I mean, you know what my plan is, don't you?"

"I have an idea, yeah." Five agreed slowly. He glanced at the hologram. "What did you have in mind?"

**Test flight for iron man boots... take 1**

_"Okay, let's do this right." Tony called. Five was standing beside the camera as Tony walked backwards, getting a feel for the boots. Each step was accompanied by a mechanical whirring. "Start mark, half a meter, and back and centre." JARVIS zoomed the camera in on Tony's feet before pulling back, showing the rudimentary hand controls he and Five had built._

_"You ready?" Five called from off screen. Tony exhaled, glancing at Dummy._

_"Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety. U, roll it." The camera pulled all the way out as Tony prepared himself. "Okay. Activate hand controls." Tony wiggled about, causing Five to smirk. He had a hologram up in front of him, ready to take notes. "We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift. And three, two, one." At the exact moment Tony hit's the button he's flung backwards and upside down, hitting the wall hard before dropping to the ground on the other side of the tool bench. Dummy sprayed Tony with the fire extinguisher and Five burst out laughing._

_"J, save that."_

_" **Adding it to the 'dumb things' folder, Five.** " JARVIS replied, humour clear._

_"I hate you both."_

**End of recording.**

**Test of gloves for space hopper (not gonna be the final name, tony),,, take one**

_The video switches on to reveal a different location. They're standing in Five's lab this time, which has an entire training area more suitable for what they're doing this time. Five is standing on a glowing blue 'x', and he has a pair of high tech looking gloves on. Each glove covers from his elbows to his knuckles, though there are exposed wires and circuit boards visible._

_"Alright, so the idea is that instead of just clenching your fist and hoping for the best, the gloves will allow you to buffer and store the build up of energy that creates your photon blasts until you're ready to discharge. The gloves will also allow some semblance of control over their direction."_

_"This is such a bad idea." Five mumbled, adjusting himself. "You're seen the damage these hits can do, Tones." He rolled his shoulders back, then held his arm up towards the target badly spray painted onto the wall._

_"We'll work on a better mechanism so you can jump and blast without having to power down later." Tony said. Five flicked the switch on the device, and it powered up with mechanical whirring. Five flexed his fingers, rolled his neck. "Ready?"_

_"Starting with 10% strength, I guess." Five mumbled to himself. They'd moved Dummy over, so he was holding a fire extinguisher in case of any fires like before. "Alright, and three, two, one." Energy shot out of Five's palm, throwing him backwards from the force of it. He hit the padded wall, then the ground, and Dummy sprayed him with the fire extinguisher._

_"Holy shit." Tony would have laughed if it wasn't for the crater that was about 4 meters in diameter that used to be the target wall. Dummy had stopped spraying, so Five could see the damage too._

_"Woah."_

**End of recording...**

Five was re-wiring the left glove, working on making it sleeker and more compact. He wriggled his fingers, and it moved accordingly. He had his earphones in Led Zeppelin blaring, and didn't notice Pepper was here until Tony shot a blast that went right past him, shocking him.

"Holy shit!" Five jumped, appearing on the opposite side of the table, heart thudding.

"I wasn't expecting that." Tony said, sounding pained.

"Everything okay, Miss Potts?" Five enquired.

"Obadiah is upstairs." Pepper informed him.

"Oh, fun."

As Tony arrived at the top of the staircase Five jumped, appearing in a blue flash. He'd changed out of his oil and dust covered overalls and into a pair of jeans and a forest green button up, feet bare. He'd left his boots and socks at the door to the lab.

"I smell pizza." Five declared. Tony headed towards the grand piano where Obadiah was playing the piano.

"How'd it go?" Tony asked. "It went that bad, huh?" Tony noticed the pizza from New York. There were three boxes on the table.

"Just because I brought Pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad."

"Uh-huh." Tony said, handing one of the boxes to Five and he takes it, inhaling the smell of piping hot New York Pizza.

"Oh how I've missed New York Pizza." Five said to himself, sliding back on the sofa and practically inhaling his first slice.

"Sure doesn't. Oh, boy."

"It would have gone better if you were there." Obadiah called pointedly.

"Uh-uh." Tony disagreed. "You told us to lay low. That's what we've been doing. We lay low and you take care of all..."

"Hey, come on. In public. The press." Obadiah said as he approached, ice hitting the side of his glass. Five put the half eaten pizza box on the table and jumped to the bar. "This was a board of directors meeting."

"Pep, want a drink?" Five asked, holding up the cocktail shaker. Pepper looked over at the man.

"Make it non-alcoholic and sure." She agreed easily. "I've still got work to do." Five gave her his award winning smile and turned his attention towards making their drinks, only half listening to the conversation.

"This- this was a board of directors meeting?" Tony asked, pretending to have not known.

"The board is claiming you have post traumatic stress. They're filing an injunction."

"A what?"

"They want to lock you out."

"Why, cause the stocks dropped over 40 points?" Five asked. Everyone glanced at him, and he looked at them weirdly. "What? Just cause I'm technically on medical leave doesn't mean they don't keep me informed. J sends updates to my tablet."

"We knew that was gonna happen." Tony said, pointing at Obie.

"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper injected. Tony turned to her with a look.

"It doesn't matter. We control the controlling interest in the company." Five jumped back to the sofa and held out the drink to Pepper, which she happily accepted. Five's mixed drinks were legendary, after all. Even the mocktails were incredible.

"Tony, the board has rights, too. They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest."

"I'm being responsible." Tony snapped. "That's a new direction for me, for the company." Obie raised an eyebrow at Tony and Five winced. "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..." Pepper sighed. "Oh this is great."

"Oh come on, Tony. Tony."

"I'll be in the shop."

"Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen. I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something." Obie put his hand on Tony's shoulder, turning him to face him. Five instinctively tensed up and Pepper put her hand on his forearm. It helped, but he still stayed wary. "Something to pitch them. Let me have the engineers analyse that. You know, draw up some specs."

"No. No, absolutely not."

"It'll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!"

"This one stays with me!" Five had jumped in a split second, appearing in between Tony and Obie and pushing the older man back the second Tony's tone got defensive. "Woah, easy, Five." Tony gripped his wrist, holding the teleporter back knowing he couldn't jump with people at the moment. His powers hadn't recharged enough yet.

"Back off." Five said lowly, a dark look in his eye as he stared Obie down.

"Forget it."

"Fine, but this stays with me." Obie took the box of pizza back. Tony turned back towards his lab. "You can have a slice." Tony grabbed one and left. "Any chance I can come down there and see what you're working on?"

"Goodnight Obie." Tony disappeared and Five waited until he heard the code being entered before he jumped back to the sofa to finish his pizza.

"What was that?" Pepper asked the 20-year-old, frowning.

"What was what?" Five asked around the final mouthful of pizza from his box.

"You're damn strong kid." Obie rubbed his chest. "I wasn't gonna hurt him, you know."

"No, I don't know that." Five admitted, throwing the last of his drink back and standing. "Mentally, I know you aren't going to hurt him. But physically it's a gut reaction, to get between him and any potential danger to the reactor. It's the only thing keeping him alive. And i'm not loosing him. I'm not loosing anyone else." With that Five jumped, leaving Obie and Pepper in the lounge wondering just what happened in Afghanistan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> authors note  
> i'm no scientist or engineer, so i apologise if the science seems off. this is the world of fanfiction, so deal bitch (kidding)  
> (also double update? you're welcome!)


	7. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more testing and five has to go back to new york, and not under ideal circumstances

_ _

_ _

_ stark mansion...  
malibu, california...  
4ish days later... _

**Test for gloves... test 7...**

_"Alright. This is configuration alpha bravo 154." Five said into the camera. "The first model kept sparking, the second shorted out before i could even power it up. This is the third make." Five was standing in Starks lab this time and they'd made space along a far wall for the practice. He was dressed in stained overalls, sleeves rolled up past his elbows, and the gauntlet was strapped to his left arm and was fiddling with it using his right. He had a pair of welding goggles on his head._

_"Alright. Dummy is standing by on fire safety. And I swear to god if you spray him for no reason I'm donating you to a city college." Tony warned Dummy, who let out a sad whine. "Ready kid?_ "

_"Let's do it." He'd configured a HUD into the welding goggles, so the gloves were controlled by JARVIS for the time being._

_" **Powering to 33%.** " Jarvis replied. " **Ready when you are, Five.** "_

_"And, three, two, one." Five threw his hand forward and this time he managed to stay on his feet, the bright electric blue blast hitting the spray painted target perfectly. It was more control than Five had ever exercised over his concussive blasts before._

_"YES!" Tony shouted, cheering._

_"Configuration AB 154 was successful." Five was grinning, bouncing on his toes. "Now it's time to construct the right arm."_

**End of recording...**

Tony threw a screwdriver at Five, jerking the younger man awake. He shot up from the desk, hair sticking up in all directions, paper stuck to his face.

"I'm awake!" He blurted. He peeled the paper from his skin, grimacing at the adhesive peeling from his skin.

"Kid, sleep." Tony pointed at the guest bedroom. "You might be an insomniac, but you've worn your powers out."

"You're probably right." Five rubbed his eyes, yawning. "Wake me in like, 5 hours."

"Will do." Tony replied with zero intention of doing so. Five trudged into the bedroom and only stripped off the overalls before passing out on top of the covers. The next time he woke up it was to a crash, quickly followed by an 'I'm fine!'.

"J, what time is it?" Five mumbled into the pillow, voice still laden with sleep.

"It is currently 11;43 am, May 15th 2008." JARVIS replied. "You have been asleep for approximately 9 hours, with zero nightmares." That gave Five pause.

"None?" He was a little confused as he rolled out of the bed, stretching his arms over his head. He did a quick check, but the stab wound in his side had healed with only minimal scarring, the cream Pepper had gotten him had helped reduce the redness of the scar on his head. The only real problem was the bullet wound in his calf. "Shit."

"Would you like me to get Sir?"

"No, I'm fine." Hissing as he put weight on his leg, he limped over to the drawers. He grabbed clean clothes and limped into the bathroom, taking a quick shower that was near freezing, dressing quickly. He pulled on clean overalls over his leggings and t-shirt, rolling the sleeves up. He carefully limped into the workshop, seeing Tony fiddling with the left hand stabilizer. Five made it to the coffee pot before he lost his balance and fell, letting out a loud curse as he did, only not breaking his nose because he threw his hands out to stop himself.

"Five!" Tony powered down the stabilizer and rushed over. Five pushed himself upright, pushing his hair back from his face with a frustrated huff. "Dammit kid."

"I'm fine." Five grunted, leaning against the cupboard.

"Dammit, jumpy, you're not fine!" Tony exclaimed. "You've probably got some permanent fucking nerve damage from that bullet wound. You need to go to a hospital."

"I'm not going to the hospital." Five said firmly. "Not fucking happening, Tony."

"Fine." Tony rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm calling your dad."

"Oh that might be worse." Five groaned.

"You don't have a say, kid. I'm worried. And I've got a heart condition." Five gave him a dry look, rolling his eyes.

"You're gonna milk that, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah." Tony chuckled. "C'mon." Tony helped him up and to his worktable, hefting him onto the stool. "Don't move."

"Wasn't planning on it."

_new york..._   
_may 16th..._

In the end Tony stuck him and Camille on the private jet and flew him to New York. By that point the pain had gotten to excruciating levels and he was refusing to take any narcotic painkillers, leaving him to just take Tylenol and ride out the pain. It was late when the plane landed in New York and Five was in a fucking bad mood. Reginald was waiting in the car for them when they arrived, so it was a simple case of Camille helping Five from the plane to the car. Thankfully it seemed like Tony had explained everything, because the only thing Reginald did was hand him two of the painkillers Grace had synthesized especially for his metabolism. It was the same strength as Vicodin, but without the addictive or woozy aspect and didn't block his powers. They'd had to change it again after they time travelled, because the new Five wasn't going to take anything that could cause addiction. Klaus began to refuse it too, though his reasoning made more sense than Five's. Despite knowing he was safe, that the apocalypse had been averted and he could continue his life without their interference, he didn't need to stay alert all the damn time. But it was habit.

"Thank you." Five said, swallowing them dry. Camille slid into the passenger seat, and they headed off. 

_hargreeves mansion..._   
_new york city, new york..._

"Hey honey." Grace greeted her son with a hug as soon as he entered the infirmary where she was setting up. Five returned it, basking in the small moment between mother-and-son that he'd long since learnt to love.

"Hey mom."

"Alright, let's take a look at that leg." Grace helped him up onto the bed and she made quick work of checking over his leg, feeling where necessary and inspecting the left over scarring. "Alright. I want to do an X-Ray and make sure the bone healed properly. I'm sure it did honey, but i want to be sure. Then bloods, MRI, Cat scan."

"Yay." Five mumbled sarcastically. Grace patted his shoulder gently and handed him shorts and a t-shirt.

"Change and we'll get started." That night consisted of test after test for Five so Grace could figure out what damage had been caused and how it could be fixed. He fell asleep during the third MRI, and woke up the next morning to a cup of hot coffee on the table beside the bed and Diego staring at him.

"Good god." Five groaned, jerking into full consciousness. "What're you doing staring at me like that, weirdo?"

"Mom asked me to check on you." Diego shrugged. "i brought coffee." He handed Five the cup, watching as his brother practically inhaled the bitter liquid.

"Where are my glasses?" Five grumbled. Diego handed them to him and he put them on. "Oh, didn't realise i was speaking to Jesus." He snorted when his sight focused.

"Like you're one to talk." Diego scoffed, gesturing to Five's equally long hair.

"Hey, i'm traumatised i have an excuse." Five retaliated. Diego gave him a grin.

"Sorry i haven't been down yet. I've been busy with the academy."

"Don't worry about it. Been busy with my own projects. Technically i'm supposed to start back in R&D on Monday, but all this sets me back."

"Sucks." Diego shrugged. "Come on, mom and dad wanna go over your results before you get lost in a science haze."

"Ugh, walking, how fun." Five deadpanned. Diego gave Five a look, then snorted.

"And you call Klaus a drama Queen?"

"Please." Five scoffed, actually getting to his feet this time. The painkillers worked fast, thankfully, and he only had a small limp when he walked. "We all know i could out drama Klaus in a second."

"Don't i know it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> authors note  
> merry christmas eve!!  
> i hope the banter between five and diego was realistic? idk, truthfully i have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to witty banter or funny moments. i try my best
> 
> enjoyy!!


	8. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the results of his trip to new york, tony can fly and five figures out the gauntlets...

_hargreeves mansion...  
new york city, new york..._

The results were exactly what he thought they'd be – minor nerve damage from an infection caused by having a lead based bullet in his leg for so long. There wasn't much that they could do for it, so Five was given painkillers to take permanently and they'd check for deterioration every few months. Since Grace wanted to monitor him for at least another day, Five agreed only on the condition he could continue working on his project. She agreed so long as he ate when asked and took the painkillers and not try to ignore the pain and Five agreed. So he, Camille and his dad headed down to the lab and he showed them what they'd been working on.

"Stark's gonna go off and try and be a hero and he's going to make mistakes." Five had said to his dad. "This way i can at least help him."

"That is very noble of you, Five." Reginald had replied. "Show me these gauntlets then. Perhaps i can help size them down."

12 hours later Five, pain down to a manageable level, walked up to the basement kitchen in search of something to eat. He wasn't completely confident in his ability to keep it down, but he knew they'd at least be glad he'd tried, not that he was doing it for them of course - his powers didn't work if his caloric intake was too low. Five had Jarvis set up in the lab via his tablet, so he knew that Tony was testing his flight boots tonight, so he wasn't all that surprised when half way through eating a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich and onto his third cup of coffee that he got a call from the engineer.

" _I can fly!_ " Came Tony's excited exclamation as soon as the call connected. " _Oh it was exhilarating!_ "

"Awesome!" Five said, mouth full of his sandwich.

" _How are the gloves coming along?_ " Tony asked. Five switched the call to speaker and placed his phone on the table so he could continue eating.

"I managed to scale them down." Five explained. "Have J show you the new specs."

" _J, bring up the latest specs for Five's gloves._ "

" **Right away, sir.** " Tony made an interested noise.

" _This is impressive. How'd you manage to keep it from frying the electrics?_ "

"Dad gave me the idea of using a mixture of copper and aluminium composites for shielding. They were the metals we noticed both absorbed and blocked the concussion blasts during training." Five tried to refrain from using terms like ' _growing up_ ' or ' _when i was a teenager_ ' because for him, both of them had been close to 7 decades ago in his mind. His real age was stated in his files, though only accessible by those with high enough clearance to know about the time travel debacle. Sometimes he had to remind himself that living a life wasn't a bad thing, especially since there were still 11 years until the apocalypse that wouldn't happen.

" _What about the absorption plates?_ "

"I had to um, invent something." Five said hesitantly. "It's sort of like a microchip, totally harmless to anyone without powers, but for people with it stores it in a buffer of sorts, allowing multiple bursts to be fired simultaneously without sapping my own energy."

" _You built an artificial power reserve that can harness biological responses._ " Tony said slowly, as if he couldn't believe it. Five smirked.

"Sure did." He agreed.

" _Skippy, you are fucking amazing._ " Tony declared. " _You should work on patenting that asap. You might never mass produce it, but you don't want someone coming in and stealing it._ "

"Already started." Patenting takes months of process, so Five had spoken to the head of Hargreeves International's Legal team and she'd promised to get the patent paperwork in first thing.

" _Good._ "

"So what's next?"

" _Next is the armour._ " Tony said. " _I've got J doing some rendering now for my suit. And I've got a couple of ideas for your suit too, I'll have J send them to your tablet. So kid, how soon can you get back to Malibu?_ "

With his leg worked out to the best they could do - Grace had found him as he was packing in preparation to leave with a box of power bars she'd had made up for him and a set of instructions.

"If you start having any trouble, you call me." Grace instructed as Five placed the box into his bag. "I don't want to see you in as bad a state as you got yourself into when you were 14 this time." Both of them winced at the reminder. Five had always been proud and stubborn, time travelling back and literally jumping dimensions to a world where they had loving parents hadn't changed that. It's how he ended up pushing his jumps to far while also being unable to stomach any food and ended up passing out mid-jump. He'd fallen down the central stairs that lead to the upper levels of the house and broken his hand, collarbone and given himself a concussion.

"I'll call you, i promise." Five assured her. "And i've got Pepper, Tony and Jarvis all worrying over me back home. I'll be fine." Grace had stroked a hand over his head, given him a kiss on the cheek before heading out, though not before telling him Camille had a copy of the instructions and she was to give it to Stark. Five just shook his head and jumped down to the lab to double check the locks on his case before they headed out. Reginald had insisted on coming to the airport with them, so the two men sat in the backseat while Camille drove. They chatted casually about the company, about Stark Industries, but nothing of importance came up. When they were boarding Stark's Jet, Reginald pulled his son aside while Camille brought the case into the plane.

"Stick with your gut." Reginald told him. "Trust your instincts, and remember the rules."

"Of course." The second time around, Reginald had given them the choice to go out and fight crime again, this time as a cohesive team of 7 than a divided team of 6. They knew Diego had already been fighting crime as a masked vigilante, and they'd all collectively decided to. Most of them were finished up with their studies anyway, Five and Ben ready to start up their college courses they were doing remotely – Five was attending MIT and commuted to Boston 3 days a week and Ben was attending Columbia, having decided to go down the route of practicing law. But it hadn't taken much discussion for them to, and they spent a few years as the Umbrella Academy teens, stopping bank robberies across the states, stopping small muggings at night, even took down a few terrorists, making them wildly known as powered individuals but, unlike last time, their identities were a close guarded secret.

But then they'd turned 18, and Five had decided to turn his attention towards his official job in the Stark Industries R&D division, working closely with Tony. Five had done a lot of testing of their hand held weaponry, specialising in blowing shit up or shooting the shit out of it. It had been cathartic. Ben had gotten into Harvard Law and moved out to Boston, and Klaus had gone with him – he had gotten a further education degree in psychology, was at Harvard to study more of it and was specialising in Combat Veteran PTSD. Allison had gone to Los Angeles and secured herself a few movie rolls within the year without the aid of her powers. Luther had stayed in New York, though he attended NYU for astrophysics and the study of the universe and did the vigilante gig on the side. Diego had gone to the police academy and actually stuck at it this time, and Vanya had gone to Central City University in California to study criminology, a vastly different career than her previous life – and she didn't write that god awful book this time around.

Their lives were different, they'd grown up in a caring environment. When they'd come up with the rules, it was to protect everyone that could be harmed by their powers, especially as Five was allowed to grow up under a less hostile environment and their powers turned out to be far more powerful than they'd ever known. It didn't stamp out the hurt caused the first time, but they were certainly more stable this time then they'd ever been.

"Never harm the civilian population. Make a plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan."

"Hmm. Cute." Reginald looked amused. "Go, Doctor Stark is likely waiting for you, son."

"Bye dad."

"I'll be in town tomorrow for the Firefighters fundraiser." Reginald said before he could go. "Vanya will be attending with her best friend. Do try and make it."

"I'll do my best."

_stark mansion...  
malibu, california..._

So now, Five was sitting in Stark's lab wearing an ear piece and watching the view screens of Tony's computers. He was chewing on a power bar because, much to his annoyance, Camille had given Tony how many of those bars Five needed to eat on top of three meals a day.

"After this, you're taking a shower." Five said, kicking his feet up on the desk and bringing himself back to the present. He was wearing Tony's old MIT hoodie and a pair of soft worn leggings he'd stolen from Allison a few years ago – she'd hit a growth spurt before Five had, but by the time Five had finally stretched out they were 5ft 9inches, meaning he continued to steal her clothes no matter how feminine they appeared. It didn't bother him at all. "You're wearing the same clothes you were when I saw you 3 days ago."

" _Shut it, Hargreeves._ " Tony snapped. " _Jarvis, are you there?_ "

" **At your service, sir.** "

" _Five, you hear me?_ "

"Loud and clear, Tones." Five replied. they had a glass of vodka in hand, periodically sipping it.

" _Engage Heads Up Display._ "

" **Check.** "

" _Import all preferences from home interface._ "

" **Will do, sir.** " Five watched Tony walk forward, and from his view on the monitor the HUD was taking in the information around the lab.

"Woah." Five leant forward, eyebrows raised.

" _All right, what do you say?_ "

" **I have indeed been uploaded, sir. We're online and ready. Five also has minimal access to the operating systems in case of any malfunctions that you cannot handle.** "

" _I'm offended, J. Can we start the virtual walk-around?_ " Tony asked.

" **Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment.** "

" _Do a check on control surfaces._ " Tony requested.

" **As you wish.** " Each part of the suit flexed, to put it simply. Testing the reactions of the suit's capabilities, making sure everything went as planned. " **Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.** " Five kicked his feet back up, knowing Tony wasn't gonna take that.

" _Uh, yeah. Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control._ "

" **Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is..**." Bingo, Five thought as Tony cut off his AI, smirking. Five thought the AI seemed more irritated and fondly exasperated than usual.

" _Jarvis! Sometimes you got to run before you can walk._ " Tony said.

"Woah, that sounded dumb." Five remarked. Tony actually twisted, pointing a metal covered finger at him.

" _Cut the sass, short stack_." Five scowled as Tony turned back towards the garage door exit. " _Ready? In three, two, one_." Tony powered up the suit with a mechanical whine, the thrusters lifting him off the ground and his hands out to stabilise him. Angling himself forward, Five watched as the suit operated flawlessly, propelling him forward until he was shakily flying up the tunnel and disappearing from sight. " _YEAH!_ "

"So, how's the view, Tones?" Five asked, watching the screens. He slid on the glove he was working on, flexing his fingers as they clinked and whirred with each movement.

" _WOOOH!_ " Tony's voice came through the speakers, sounded elated. Five cursed as the glove sparked, but continued screwing in the new power absorption panel that Five and Reginald had designed for it. " _Oh, handles like a dream._ "

"I bet." Five muttered. "J, activate the screens in the test range so I can keep an eye on the dumbass?"

" **Certainly, Five**." Jarvis transferred the feed to the hologram projectors along the metal wall as Tony flew around. " **Shall I run a diagnostic on the new design, or are you going to follow Sir's reckless ideology?** "

"You can run the diagnostic after I test the power absorption panels. I need you to identify where they can be scaled down more and where i can make adjustments to the materials used. And open up a new file and name it 'type 2' and compile a list of materials I could use to make a lightweight suit that is durable for flight and long term wear. And maybe bullet proof. I've been shot before, not too keen on repeating the process." A sigh echoed through the room.

" **Of course, Five.** "

" _All right, let's see what this thing can do._ " Tony said, and Five glanced at the video feed and saw that Tony was heading straight up. " _What's SR-71's record?_ "

"For fixed wing flight its 85,000 feet, tin can." Five replied before Jarvis.

" **Five is correct, sir.** " Five grinned rather stupidly to himself. Jarvis was always good at making sure Five knew he was smart, and could be smarter than the AI if he tried hard enough. Jarvis always made sure to tell Five when he was right.

" _Records are made to be broken! Come on!_ " Five turned his attention back to the range.

"Record this for the file, J."

" **Recording.** " Jarvis replied.

"Powering up to 12% to start with." Five held his left arm up and concentrated, pulling his powers forward. The absorption panel lit up blue and began to get brighter, and then Five fired. Five went flying backwards, right over the tables, boxes and into the glass wall. He landed with a groan at the bottom of the steps, dazed, as Tony came crashing through the roof and landing on top of one of his vintage cars. Dummy sprayed him with the fire extinguisher, and he tipped his head back with a sigh.

" **Sir, I am detecting multiple minor injuries on Five**." Jarvis reported, much to the mechanics shock.

"What?" Tony got to his feet and it took several long, agonising seconds for J to remove the armour before he was rushing over to Five. The younger man was getting to his feet, looking disgruntled and a little pissed off as they brushed broken glass of his clothes. "You alright, kid?"

"Fine." Five rolled his left shoulder, then winced. "Hit my arm and hip on the step. Wait," They furrowed his brows and looked at Tony, "I didn't see you come in."

"I came in via the roof." Tony pointed at the hole in the ceiling and his destroyed car and Five couldn't stop the amused giggle that escaped him. Tony quickly followed and before long the two scientists were poor less with laughter.

"J, run the panels through some simulations for me would you?" Five asked as he disengaged the gloves, placing them carefully on the table. Jarvis scanned them, already having the specs for them the moment Five returned with the newer models.

"Very well, Five. I have also sent some designs to your tablet to look at."

"Sweet." Five looked at the mechanic. "You, shower, find ice packs. I'll order pizza."

"Sounds good to me." Tony headed upstairs. "And J, make a note to call a glass repairman and have the wall fixed asap."

"Of course, sir."


	9. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the final suits are in progress, the firefighters fundraiser and the truth comes out...

_ stark mansion...  
malibu, california... _

An hour later Five and Tony were seated at Tony's desk, ice packs masking taped to their bodies – Tony's shoulder, Five's hip and bicep. The TV was playing, and Five was spinning in his chair while they swiped through different designs on his tablet. There were different things running on the screens that surrounded them, the reactor, different versions of the suits, the simulation for Five's panels.

"Notes. Main transducer feels sluggish at plus 40 altitude. Hull pressurization is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor."

" **A very astute observation, sir.** " Jarvis replied, rather sarcastically at that. Five snorted. " **Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets we should improve the exosystems.** "

"What do you think about this one?" Five asked, interrupting Tony's reply and showing Tony the tablet.

"Too much exposed skin." Tony dismissed. "You'd freeze before you got a hundred feet off the ground."

"Right."

"Now that my suit if flight capable we'll start on the flight boots for your suit." Tony said.

"I don't want a suit like yours." Five protested immediately. He hated the idea of being stuck in what was basically a high tech metal can.

"Obviously not. I was thinking reinforced Kevlar armour. We'll put thin sheets of the metal in the suit to protect you until we find a better material." Tony turned his attention back to the screens. "Connect to the sys. Co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use gold titanium alloy for from the seraphim tactical satellite. That should ensure a fuselage integrity while maintaining power-to-weight ratio. Got it?" Tony finished his green smoothie.

" **Yes. Shall I render using the proposed specifications?** "

"Thrill me."

"J, run these three designs through the rendering and see if you can come up with a few designs." Five requested, selecting three of the suit designs.

" **Certainly, Five. Have you decided on a colour scheme yet?** "

"Anything but red." Five shrugged. "Perhaps silver, blue or green?"

" **I'll draw up the designs for you.** "

"Thanks J." Five turned his attention to the TV Tony was looking at.

" _...Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Tony Stark's third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund has become the place to be for L.A.'s high society._ "

"Jarvis, we get an invite for that?" Tony asked.

" **I have no record of an invitation sir.** "

"I got one." Five shrugged a shoulder. "Some things pay to be a Hargreeves Heir. Especially the one inheriting his fortune 500 company next year. Dad said asked if i was going. Told him i'd try and make it." Yeah, that wasn't something Five was looking forward too. At Reginald's request Five had taken a few business management courses in college, and had spent a year learning the in's and outs of the company, how everything ran, who was in charge where, what he needed to do in order to keep the boards favour. Five already had plans to open up a joint R&D division with Stark Industries, one that he had been slowly working on getting the boards favour on before the kidnapping. Hargreeves International made medical supplies, ranging from plasters to MRI machines to hand held portable scanners that were being worked into circulation for EMT's. They had a contract with the Military and made their protective gear like the boots, vests, helmets, trousers, shirts the likes. Five's deal with Stark Industries would bridge the gap between their technologies divisions and hopefully bring the companies into the 21st century technology wise.

" _...Neither have been seen in public since Tony Stark's bizarre and highly controversial press conference._ " Tony held up an older model mask up to his face, causing Five to snort at him. " _Some claim that he's suffering from posttraumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the cause may be, no one expects an appearance from him tonight. And we can only hope that the son of billionaire Reginald Hargreeves, Doctor Aidan Hargreeves, decides to finally step forward and make a statement on his decisions moving forward with his father's business..._ " Five scoffed.

"Dad really had to make my life harder by deciding to retire this year, didn't he?" Five grumbled, crossing his arms.

"His plan was always to retire when you turned 21." Tony reminded the young genius, who huffed.

"Doesn't mean i have to like it."

" **The renders are complete.** " The left monitor filled with the specs of Tony's suit, while the right showed the three designs for Five's. Tony's suit was pure gold in the rendering.

"A little ostentatious, don't you think?"

" **What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet**." Five clicked the third design, bringing up a larger image. The suit itself was slim, more like a second skin than Tony's thick armour, but you could see where Jarvis had tried to stick with Tony's requests to make it as protected as possible. The shoulders were silver, the pads coming across his shoulders from the neck protection, which covered up to the bottom of his hairline with the same silver, but the front was of a softer material that was obviously to help with movement and so it didn't restrict breathing made of a black material. The torso and back were silver on both sides of a long, blue stripe from the middle of the neck to the belt. The back strip was from the base of his back up to the top of his neck, each small tab clearly there to ensure range of movement. The arms were a deep blue down to his wrists, where the gloves were a deep green that cut off at the middle of his fingers, and the panels were visible on both palm. The trousers were black with a silver stripe down the side, green on one side and blue on the other, and the boots were a more compact version of Tony's that looked to be disguised as combat boots.

"Oh, that's the one." Tony agreed with Five's questioning hum. Tony gazed past Five, seeing one of his older vintage cars that had red paint on it. "Tell you what. Throw a little hot-rod red in there." Tony poured the last of smoothie into his glass, smirking as he did.

" **Yes, that should help you keep a low profile.** " They watched the rendering change until parts of the suit were red and parts gold, and it looked fantastic. " **The render is complete.** "

"Hey, I like it. Fabricate it. Paint it. And order the strongest and most flexible metals you can, along with whatever military grade Kevlar and clothing you can locate for design 3."

" **Commencing automated assembly. And I have already compiled a list of what will be needed for the construction of Five's suit. The materials will be here tomorrow morning between 5am and 9am. Estimated completion time is five hours.** "

"Thanks J." Five grinned. Tony glanced down at his watch and saw the time.

"Don't wait up for me, honey." Tony looked at his friend, smirking. "You up for a party, Hargreeves?"

_disney concert hall...  
malibu, california..._

Tony drove through LA traffic in his silver Audi a-8, Five lounging in the passenger seat. They pulled up to the Gala in style, the Valet rushing around to the drivers side as both men exited the car swiftly, dressed to the nines in suits. While Tony had gone for the black with a white shirt and bow tie, Five had gone for his favourite deep forest green with a black shirt, top two buttons undone. His hair was slicked back just enough, though a stray piece of hair fell away from the style and ended up hanging down, framing his face. He adjusted his cuffs as Tony came up beside him and the two headed towards the entrance, gaining the attention of the other guests. Smoothly Five and Tony passed them and headed for the red carpet where Obadiah was talking to a reporter.

"Weapons manufacturing is only a small part of what Stark Industries is all about, and our partnership. With the fire and rescue community..." The crowds around Obie only got louder, eventually catching their attention as Tony and Five walked towards them.

"Hey, Tony, remember me?" Some blonde purred.

"Sure don't." Tony dismissed easily. Camera's flashed around them.

"Oooh, cold." Five gave him a wry grin and Tony just ignored him.

"Five, looking for a good time?" Some other blonde bimbo purred.

"Not a chance." Five dismissed easily, holding back a shudder of disgust. Five had never hidden his clear preference of men, even though he was known to dabble with a woman.

"Not so fun, huh." Tony chuckled. "Look great, Hef." Tony patted an older man's shoulder, one who had his arms around two younger ladies. Five did too, smiling.

"Good too see you again, Hef. Looking well." Five greeted. Five knew their father was around somewhere, having texted saying he would be in attendance. A quick exchange with Tony and Five slipped past him, finding his father speaking with a reporter a few people away.

"...the decision to collaborate with Stark Industries hasn't changed. Even as Doctor Stark's company goes through manufacturing changes, my heir and I will continue to stand by any and all decision they make. Stark has been a good friend to Doctor Hargreeves for many years, and I doubt that has changed now." Reginald was saying as Five came into hearing range

"Dad." Five called, catching his attention. Reginald turned, looking rather surprised.

"You made it." Reginald greeted his son with a hug, giving Five a kind smile. "Vanya's around somewhere."

"They are?" Five lit up, looking around for his favourite sibling. Vanya was standing a few people over and was on the arm of a taller man, though he did look to be around their age. His hair was dark brown and clearly this wasn't his scene. Both of them were wearing suits, though Vanya's was a cobalt blue paired with a pair of 3 inch heels and a white shirt and a few necklaces visible. Even so, Vanya looked tiny compared to the man they were stood with, who was at least 6ft, dressed in a black suit and tie.

"Doctor Hargreeves, can I ask you a few questions?" The reporter asked Five.

"You can ask, I can't promise I'll answer." Five returned, giving them the answer he always gave.

"You've been silent in the public since the press conference a week ago. Care to comment?"

"As you can imagine, Doctor Stark and I went through a rather traumatic experience. I have spent the last week working from home, frequently checking in with Doctor Stark. Until now I haven't gone anywhere." Five replied, giving her a charming smile.

"What about reports that say you were seen exiting a Stark Jet in New York?" She asked, arching a brow.

"My brother returned for a few days to be checked over by our mother." Vanya swiftly interjected, sliding up beside them and looping their arm with Five's. "As you can imagine, being held a POW made Five unwilling to visit a hospital, so our mother, who is a Doctor, wanted to give him a check-up." Vanya's smile was timid, but kind and sweet as always.

"Thank you for your time, Doctor Hargreeves." The reporter left and Five let out a breath. He turned to look at Tony, who was conversing with Obadiah in front of a camera crew and reporter.

"Five, this is Barry Allen." Vanya introduced their date for the evening. Five turned so he was were fully facing Five, and they noticed the small collection of badges that Vanya wore with every outfit. One in particular was of a purple smiley face, and Five mentally switched her pronouns. "Barry this is my brother Five."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Hargreeves." Barry smiled. Clearly he'd been told about Five's refusal to shake hands, because he kept his hands in his pockets. "I'm a huge fan of your work."

"Barry is my lab partner at CCU." Vanya explained at Five's curiosity.

"In that case it's nice to meet a friend of my siblings." Five gave him a smile at the same time Tony left Obie and came up to them.

"Ah, Sir Hargreeves, a pleasure to see you again." Tony greeted with a charming smile, meeting Reginald in a handshake.

"And you, Doctor Stark." Reginald nodded. "I want to thank you, for looking out for my child while you were both... otherwise engaged."

"Dad." Five grumbled, blushing a bit at the unexpected thanks towards his mentor and best friend.

"We worried a lot, for both of you, while you were missing." Vanya chimed in, giving Tony a smile. "We don't know what happened, but it was slightly comforting to know that you had each other's back."

"Yes well, I found myself caring about the kid more than I realised." Tony cleared his throat, shifting a little uncomfortably at the conversation. "How about we head inside?" Tony suggested, abruptly changing the subject.

"Making an entrance, are we?" Reginald asked, amused.

"Um, always." Tony teased. Five stepped up beside Tony as he always did and the two headed inside, followed closely by Reginald, Vanya and Barry. The inside hall of the Disney Concert Hall was decorated impeccably as always. They went straight for the bar, Five itching for a drink. Tony waved over a bartender, pulling out a hundred dollar bill. "Get me a scotch. I'm starving. Drinks on me, you guys. Get what you like." Tony told them.

"I'll have a grey goose, neat." Five told the bartender.

"I'll have a white wine." Vanya said next.

"Um, water for me." Barry said.

"And a malt whisky, please." Reginald said lastly. The man nodded and went to make the drinks.

"Mr Stark?" They turned their heads, only to see Agent Phil Coulson. Vanya remembered him from the press conference a month ago. "Mr Hargreeves?" Five narrowed his eyes at Coulson and wondered if the man was truly clueless or was being intentionally obtuse.

"It's doctor." Five corrected immediately. Coulson seemed unphased.

"Of course, Doctor Hargreeves." He corrected himself.

"Yeah?" Reginald, Vanya and Barry accepted their drinks and moved off to mingle, leaving Five and Tony to speak with the man.

"Agent Coulson."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. The guy from the..."

"From the press conference." Five added. "Vanya told me about you."

"From the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." Coulson said patiently. Five whistled lowly.

"God, you need a new name for that." Tony sipped his drink, looking out at the crowd. Five kept an eye on Vanya, who was standing with Barry speaking to an older couple near the dance floor.

"Yeah, I hear that a lot." Coulson replied. "Listen, I know this must be a trying time for you both, but we need to debrief you. There's still a lot of unanswered questions, and time can be a factor with these things." Tony was barely listening, eyes focused on one particular person on the dance floor. "Let's just put something on the books. How about the 24th at 7:00 PM at Stark Industries?" Tony didn't even look at Coulson as he held his hand out to the man.

"You know what. You got it. You're absolutely right." They shook hands. Five watched with undisguised amusement. "Well, I'm going to go to my assistant, and we'll make a date." Tony walked away, leaving Five alone at the bar. Five wasn't entirely shocked by that, and the younger man sighed and finished their vodka, signalling for another one.

"Agent Coulson, I hope you understand that this meeting probably isn't going to wield the answers you're looking for." Five said casually, handing the bartender their card and tipping.

"We'll see, Doctor Hargreeves." Agent Coulson left, and Five got up to do some schmoozing. These fundraisers were gold minds for potential benefactors for the company.

"Ah, Angela, how wonderful to see you again..."

20 minutes later Tony found him, interjecting himself into the conversation with a kind smile to the lady Five was speaking with. Five saw straight through him, though, and could see the tension in Tony's shoulders.

"Pardon the intrusion. Do you mind if I steal Doctor Hargreeves for a moment?" Tony asked with his nicest smile.

"Excuse me, Lady Eberhart." Five apologised. "Please, have your people call my people and we'll set something up."

"Enjoy your evening, Doctor Hargreeves." She wandered off and Five turned to Tony, who looked furious.

"What's wrong?"

"These photos were taken yesterday in a town called Gulmira." Tony handed Five the photos and they flicked through them, their frown growing with every minute. Gulmira was the town Yo Hinsen had lived in. The one his family had been killed in.

"I don't understand." Five looked up. "I thought all shipments of Stark Weaponry was frozen until further notice."

"It is." Tony agreed. "Someone's illegally shipping the weapons overseas, Five." Dread pooled in Five's gut. "Listen, I'm going to go and talk to Obie. Find your dad and ask him. He's a member of the board, he might know."

"Got it." They parted ways.

Five rushed down the steps outside the Concert Hall, Vanya and Reginald close behind. Reginald's words echoed in his head.

' _Mr Stane filed the injunction against Doctor Stark._ ' Over and over. The betrayal of Tony's oldest friend, of a man who had treated him like a friend and a colleague for years, hit hard. But Five couldn't imagine how that felt to Tony.

"Stark!" Five called seeing his friend frozen on the step as Stane rushed off, ignoring the reporters. The reporter that had shown Tony the photos headed back inside, passing the Hargreeves as she did. "Tony."

"He..."

"I know." Five said grimly. Together, they watched the man get into his car and leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


	10. Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> five's suit is made, and stark decides to do something stupid. naturally, five tags along, and learns about a new power...

_ stark mansion...  
malibu, california... _

"I'm gonna head back to my place." Five said after two hours of nothing but dead silence. Tony looked up from his computer. "You need time to process and i can tell you're thinking about doing something dumb, so i'm gonna need my suit finished."

"Right." Tony nodded. He handed Five a flash drive. "Plug this into your servers, you'll have access to JARVIS. You'll likely need to upload him to the suit."

"Thanks." Five gathered up everything he'd need into a box and sent a text message to Vanya. "And i'm sorry, about Obediah."

"Thanks, kid."

"Jarvis, have my stuff diverted to my place."

**"Of course, Five."** Jarvis replied. Five left, lock clicking behind him, and he jumped to his own place, landing on steady feet in the middle of his living room. Vanya and Barry were already there, sitting on the couch in lounge wear.

"Great, you two, with me." Five beckoned them to follow. Vanya jumped to their feet, grinning.

"Finally getting to see what you're working on, bro?" Vanya asked.

"I need help with the final assembly." He explained as they descended into the basement. He punched in his passcode and scanned his fingerprint, and the door unlocked with a click. Dumping the box onto one of the work surfaces, he tossed the flash drive at Barry, who fumbled with wide eyes but caught it. "Plug that into the computer. Vanya, come here." While Barry headed over to the computer set up in the corner, Vanya followed Five into the middle of the lab.

"What still needs done?" They asked.

"Outer armour and flight stabilizers." Five said.

**"Initializing."** Jarvis' voice came through the speakers.

"Holy shit!" Barry blurted. "Is that an AI?"

"Yup!" Vanya replied with their usual cheer and god, wasn't that something Five absolutely loved to hear? He looked at her as she explained Jarvis to Barry, remembering when he first spoke to her again, after 45 years of being haunted by her 13 year old voice, only for her to sound so sullen, so emotionless. He never wanted to hear it again. "What are you staring at?" Vanya asked him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Nothing." He said, shaking his head. "J, you there?"

**"Yes, Five. I have asked Mr Dennings to deliver your materials here."** Jarvis replied. **"He has graciously agreed to make the delivery now. He will be here within the hour."**

"Awesome." Five nodded. Mr Dennings was the delivery driver that Five had recruited last year. He made all the deliveries for Tony and Five, was paid well and was more than willing to make late night deliveries. "Make sure he's tipped well, J."

**"Always."**

"Alright, shall we start?"

_ hargreeves mansion...  
malibu, california... _

**Test 8 for boots....**

_"Alright, flight test one." Five announced into the camera they'd set up on the tripod. Barry and Vanya were standing on the edge of the camera's frame, Vanya holding a tablet. Barry had a fire extinguisher beside his feet, just in case._

_"_ _**Might I suggest you start with 2.5% thrust, Five.** _ _" Jarvis suggested. "_ _**We wouldn't want another incident like Sir's first try.** _ _"_

_"Right." Five took a few steps side to side, testing the motion in the boots. They were well crafted, similar to Tony's but with a few significant differences. They were the same design, but instead of thick metal plating Five and Barry had fitted thin panels of the titanium alloy and then covered it in the black armoured leather Jarvis had ordered. "Alright. Powering up thrusters to 2.5% and switching from blasts to stabilisers." Five lowered the helmet that connected him to JARVIS._

_"_ _**Switch complete.** _ _" JARVIS replied._

_"In 3, 2, 1..." The thrusters powered up, and Five was lifted off the floor. He held his hands out, balancing himself steadily._

_"Levels are holding." Vanya announced._

_"Powering up to 5%." Five called. He watched on the HUD as the levels went up and the thrusters whirred, getting stronger. He drifted forward, but caught himself with ease. "J, 10%." They worked their way up the levels, until Five's flight capabilities were at 100% and held steady. He powered them down and dropped, bending his knees as he did._

**End of recording...**   
  
  


His phone rang 10 minutes later, and Jarvis patched it straight through.

"Up for doing something dumb?" Tony asked by way of greeting. Five had just pulled on his gloves, flexing his fingers as he stretched out the leather. He glanced at Vanya and Barry, who was checking over the last of the metal plating.

"What did you have in mind?"

"B, V, you there?"

_"Affirmative, Five."_ Both of them replied. They'd set themselves up in Five's command centre, as Barry had excitedly dubbed it. Five had just rolled his eyes but not protested.

"Remember, not a word to anyone." Five reminded them both.

_"My lips are sealed."_ Barry promised. _"This is awesome."_

"Ready, J?" Five asked.

**"All systems are operational, Five."** Jarvis confirmed.

"Alright, let's do this."

_gulmira...  
_ _afghanistan..._

The flight to Gulmira was exhilarating. Five's suit fit like a dream, insulated and circulated heat around his body as they flew across the skies in freezing cold temperatures. Tony engaged the thruster and broke the sound barrier, a loud bang echoing behind them as they flew.

"So, what's the plan?" Five asked.

_"I... didn't think that far ahead."_ Tony admitted, his voice still rather pissed off. Five didn't blame him.

"Yeah, makes sense." Five was used to Tony going into a situation more or less half cocked. In the distance Five saw missiles flying towards the ground, sobering them.

_"Ready?"_

"Let's do this."

The two superheroes landed with a thud on the dusty sand in front of the insurgent. Five rose up, the boots giving both him and Tony an intimidating extra 5 or so inches of height as they stared down the insurgents. One soldier started shooting, but the bullets harmlessly bounced off the suits as Tony stormed forward and punched the guy, throwing him up and back, spinning and firing at another. Five shot two guys at the same time, sending them back into the wall with holes through their freaking chests. Five didn't have time to think about that as they fought back to back. They span at the same time, hands out at the four men holding innocents hostage. They lowered their hands and powered down their gloves.

" _I've got this._ " Tony told Five. He targeted each insurgent with the tracking system, and took out all six men in one go. The shouting ceased and a boy escaped his mother's grasp.

"HOLY SHIT!" Barry and Vanya both shouted. Five smirked.

"Papa! Papa!" He crashed into the man's arms, who returned the hug just as fiercely, whispering assurances in Arabic. Tony glanced around, then walked past them, Five remaining where he was to keep his eyes on the still alive insurgents. Tony shoved his arm through a wall, gripping the man's chest and yanking him through the wall and throwing him into the crowd. Tony and Five both powered up, flying off with a simple, **'He's all yours'** before flying off. Five was a few feet away, so when Tony was shot out of the sky Five pulled back, trying to locate him through the dust cloud.

"JARVIS, gimmie a local on Stark." He turned and shot a missile that was coming straight for him, blowing it up. Somehow, instead of damaging him or the suit, Five absorbed the power instead. A rush went through his veins, and he let out an exhale. "What the hell was that?"

"Since when can you absorb energy, Five!" Vanya asked.

"I have no idea, V." Five said seriously. "J?"

"There does not appear to be any adverse effects to your health. **I believe you were able to absorb the energy from the blast and turn it into pure kinetic energy.** " JARVIS offered. " **Sir is at your seven o'clock.** " Five flew down and landed, arm out and shooting a blast towards the tank at the same time as Tony shot a mini missile at it. They turned as it exploded, walking towards a large group of insurgents. Tony flew up, but Five stayed on the ground and stormed towards two men, grabbing the gun in his grip and yanking it. He shot the second man, kicking the first to the ground and then blew his head off with a concussion blast. The missile launcher exploded, but Five ignored Tony's warning of the blast as he, yet again, managed to absorb the energy.

_"What the shit kid?_ " Tony exclaimed in shock.

"Not a damn clue." He replied. "Pretty cool though, right?"

_"Five!"_ Vanya said sternly. _"Dad's gonna have a field day."_

"Ooh." Five winced at the thought. Thankfully, their masks were sound proof unless they wanted to speak to anyone, voices altered slightly. 

"Heading home, 2 hours out." Five reported.

"See you soon, Five." Five cut the connection to the lab. They flew out, heading back to the states. They were mid-flight when Tony's phone rang.

" _Hello?_ " Tony answered. Five figured he must have patched the call into Five's comms as well.

"Tony?"

" _Who's this?_ " Tony asked.

"It's Rhodes."

" _I'm sorry?_ "

"I said it's Rhodes."

" _Speak up, please._ "

"What in the hell is that noise?" Rhodes asked. Tony looked around him.

" _Oh, yeah, I'm driving with the top down._ " Five snorted indelicately.

"Five is that you?"

"Good afternoon, Colonel Rhodes."

"Hey kid. Look, Tones, I need your help right now." Rhodes said.

" _It's funny how that works, huh?_ "

"Yeah. Speaking of funny, we've got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks where you two were being held captive."

" _Well, that's a hot spot._ "

"Surely you know that, Colonel." Five added casually.

" _Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you, huh?_ "

"Why do you sound out of breath, Tony?"

_"I'm not, I was just jogging in the canyon."_

"I thought you were driving."

_"Right, I was driving. To the canyon. Where I'm going to jog."_

"You managed to get Five to jog?"

"Yeah I was surprised to." Five grumbled, playing along.

"You sure you don't have any tech in that area I should know about?"

"Nope!" Tony and Five replied cheerily. In the background they heard ' ** _Bogey spotted!_** '.

" _ **Whiplash, come in hot**_." Someone else said faintly.

"Okay, good, 'cause I'm staring at two right now and they're about to be blown to kingdom come." Tony and Five both looked behind them as two jets flew into view, level with them.

" _Oh, that's my exit!_ " Five and Tony both spun in different directions, one plane following Tony and the other Five. Tony ended the call with Rhodey.

"We're so fucked!"


	11. Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh you know, nearly getting shot out of the sky by the air force...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five - normal  
> Tony - italics  
> Rhodey - underlined  
> Whiplash 1&2 - bold

_ afghanistan air space...  
afghanistan... _

"Ballroom, this is whiplash one. I've got bogey 1 in my sights."

"Ballroom, this is whiplash two. I've got bogey 2 on my two o'clock."

"Whiplash one, what is it?"

"I've got no idea."

"Whiplash two?"

"I've never seen anything like it, sir."

"You have radio contact?"

"Non responsive, sir."

"Then you are clear to engage."

"I hope you have an idea, Tony." Five said. Five dipped below the clouds, doubling back and shooting upwards. The plane was somehow still on his ass.

" _Hit it._ " At the same time Five and Tony engaged thrusters to maximum, passing the sound barrier.

"J, can you tap me into their coms?" Five asked. There was crackling for a moment and then his ear was filled with their communications.

"The bogey's just went supersonic! I've got a lock."

"I second, Whiplash one." Whiplash two agreed, the two planes levelling out as the targets remained close together.

"Let me get this one." Five said.

" _Give it all you got, kid_." Five twisted so he was flying on his back, holding his arms forward as the two missiles gained speed. He waited.

"Power up to 100% capacity, J." Five ordered. His gloves fired up, and he directed all of his energy into his hands and shot at the missiles. They exploded directly in front of Five and the concussion wave sent Tony hurtling forward.

"Hold up, bogey two took out the missiles."

"Is it destroyed?" Rhodes asked.

**_"Negative sir. Holy shit! It seems to have absorbed the energy from the explosion!"_ **

" _Woah!_ " Tony flew all over the place and Five let out a loud 'whoop', the blast refilling his energy reserves. " _Neat trick!_ " One of the planes started shooting at them.

"Shit!" A bullet pierced the back of Five's armour even as he twisted away. Tony was hit several times, but they bounced off the suit.

" _Deploy flaps!_ " Tony grabbed onto Five and the planes zoomed past, not accounting for the change in speed. " _Can you jump?_ "

"Oh yeah." They were gone before anybody could see them. Five only jumped them to below the second plane and Tony gripped on, Five holding onto the shoulders of Tony's suit. Tony made a call to Rhodes again.

"Hello?"

"Hi Rhodey, it's me."

"It's who?"

" _I'm sorry, it is me. Me and Five. You asked. What you were asking me about is me._ "

"No, see, this isn't a game." Rhodes snapped. "You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone. You understand that."

" _It's not just a piece of equipment. We're in them! They're suits! It's us!_ " Tony shouted.

" ** _Rhodey, you got anything for me?_** " Rhodes just turned to the man with pure shock on his face.

"Mark your position and return to base." Came over the radio to the two planes.

"Roger that, Ballroom." The second jet turned, and the guy in the first saw them.

"On your belly! It- it looks like a man! Shake them off! Roll! Roll!" Tony slipped, suit being thrown backwards as Five dropped downwards. Tony flew into the plane behind him, taking out the wing.

" ** _Whiplash two, do you see a scute?!_** "

" ** _Negative, no scute!_** "

" ** _It's jammed._** " Tony headed straight for the falling airman, ignoring Jarvis warning him that they'd re-targeted him and ripped open the airman's scute, quickly flying upwards out of the way. He searched for Five and caught sight of him in a free fall and shot forward, chasing after him.

"Tony, you still there?" Rhodes asked.

" _FIVE!_ " Tony was shouting frantically. " _Shit, Shit, Shit!_ "

"Tony!" Rhodes whisper hissed. There's a metallic thud on the other end, then Tony panted as he started evasively flying them both away from the second plane still on their tail. "Tony? Five? You alright?"

"My left boot isn't operational." Five grunted. "But peachy."

" _Hang in there, kid._ " He turned his attention back to the call. " _Hey, thanks._ "

"Oh my god, you crazy sons of bitches." Rhodes laughed half hysterically. "You owe me a plane. You know that, right?" Tony laughed.

" _Yeah, well, technically, he hit me. Now are you going to come by and see what we're working on?_ "

"No, no, no, no, no, no, the less I know, the better. Now, what am I supposed to tell the press?"

"Don't you usually use the training exercise bullshit?" Five asked casually.

"It's not that simple."

"Ten bucks says he uses it." Five muttered.

" _You're on_."

_stark mansion..._   
_malibu, california..._

When Pepper came down to the lab after they'd returned with Vanya and Barry behind her, it was Five standing shirtless with Kevlar trousers on, laughing hysterically at Tony who couldn't get the suit off. The TV was playing Rhodey's press conference where he had, in fact, used the 'training exercise bullshit' and Five had won 10 quid. Both Pepper glanced at the broken glass where Tony, in his rage, had broken the other three windows and they stepped around it carefully, entering the lab.

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked in complete confusion over Five's laughter.

"Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing." Tony said conversationally, just setting Five off further. Pepper didn't find it as funny.

"Are those bullet holes?" She asked in shock. She glanced at Five, now noticing the large burn on his bare shoulder. "Is that an energy burn?"

"We can explain?"

"Yes, I rather think you should." Five winced at Vanya's tone and looked at his friend, who was looking at him in return.

"Hey Tones?"

"Yeah?"

"I think it's time you run for your fucking life, man." Tony winced at that.

"Yeah, i'm getting those vibes too."


	12. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> five has a seizure, tony comes out as iron man...

_ _

_ _

_ stark mansion...  
malibu, california... _

As a kid, Five had been unfortunate enough to have a few seizures due to the volatility of his powers, and he'd probably had nearly two dozen during the training the Handler put him through alone. But he hadn't had one in about 6 years though, at least until now. Five had been down in Tony's lab working on his boots with his headphones in blasting Led Zeppelin when he'd been jabbed in the side of the neck with a syringe likely filled with sedatives and he crashed to the floor, out before he even touched it. When he came too, he knew instinctively that he'd had one. He was sprawled out across the floor of the lab. 

When Tony stumbled in, dying, and he saw Five laying there, unable to move and looking completely vulnerable, terror shot through him so fast he thought if Obadiah hadn't already removed the reactor, that sight would have sent him into heart failure. He focused his eyes on the original reactor, useless to Five that very moment, sitting on the desk. Tony dragged himself across the floor, glancing at the reactor and at Five, who's fingers were twitching, but unfortunately very unconscious.

"Tony?" Faintly, Tony could hear Rhodey shouting as he managed to get the old reactor into his chest, movements sluggish and nearly impossible. "Five? Tony!" When the man rushed in and helped Tony up, the mechanic gripped his arms.

"Where's Pepper?" Tony asked, voice hoarse.

"She's fine, she's with five agents." Rhodey assured him. "They're about to arrest Obadiah."

"That's not going to be enough." Tony said gravely. "How's Five?" Tony rasped, jerking his head over at Five. Five was flat on his back now, skin deathly white and his entire body was seizing.

"Shit!" Rhodey cursed. He quickly reached Five and put his hand under the younger man's head, at least preventing him from concussing himself. Unfortunately there wasn't much that could be done other than waiting it out. "Does he have seizures often?"

"No. T-Time it." Tony had somehow managed to drag himself over, leaning heavily against Rhodey. who was watching the clock steadily. A few minutes passed before Five's seizure passed, and he didn't exactly react well.

"No, no, no, no." Five mumbled. He jerked upright with a gasp, eyes flashing open. But he wasn't seeing the work tables of Tony's lab. His mind was stuck somewhere in his past and he jerked, panicking. "Get- get off- leave me alone! S-stop no no no-"

"Five!" Rhodey said, using his Colonel voice. Five jerked his head around, staring at Rhodey with pure confusion before recognition flashed across his eyes.

"Rhodey?" Five asked weakly, his voice cracking.

"Yeah kid." Rhodey sighed in relief. "How are you?"

"What happened?" Five asked instead, turning his gaze to Tony, who looked pale, nearly dead and betrayed. "Tony?"

"Obadiah paid the Ten Rings to kidnap us." Tony informed Five. Several emotions flitted across his face, but he settled on deadly rage.

"So, what do we plan on doing about that?" Five asked darkly.

  
  


Five's suit was still under repairs, and given that he'd just had a seizure and had been given a sedative, Five's powers were dormant for the next 12 hours minimum.

"Go, Tones." Five said at Tony's questioning look. "My suit's entire weapons system relies on my powers. The sedative knocks em out for hours. There's a reason why i don't like sedatives. It's like cranking a release valve on an overloaded system."

"Shit, we should work on that." Tony frowned. "J, add a note to Five's files about secondary weapons systems."

"Right away, sir." Jarvis said promptly. Tony, already in his suit, walked over to the hole in the middle of his home that he'd yet to fix.

"Need me to do anything else?" Rhodey asked his best friend.

"Keep the skies clear." Tony shot up through the hole, much to Rhodey's complete awe. He glanced at the silver suit that Tony was building.

"Next time." Rhodey said under his breath. "Coming?"

"No." Five shook his head. "I'm ground control." He picked up an ear piece and slid it in, then hit a button on the keyboard at Tony's desk. "You hear me, Shellhead?"

" _Loud and clear, string bean._ " Tony replied. Despite how pissed off, how absolutely furious Tony was, Five was just relieved Tony was still using nicknames. " _How's your head?_ "

"Aching." Five grumbled.

" **There is some aspirin in the cupboard above the coffee machine, Five.** " Jarvis informed Five.

"Thanks J." Five muttered. He took two, poured himself a cup of coffee, then sat down to watch the show.  
  


_the next day...  
stark industries..._

" _You've all received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night. There have been unconfirmed reports that a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damaged to the arc reactor. Fortunately, a member of Tony Stark's personal security staff..._ " Five was sitting on a chair with his feet kicked up against the side of Tony's, who had a copy of 'The Chronicle' in hand reading the latest report on 'Iron Man'.

"Iron Man. That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it." Tony mused as Pepper used cover up on the bruises on his face. "I mean it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold-titanium alloy," Tony winced as Pepper pulled the medical strip off his nose, "but it's kind of evocative, the imagery, anyway."

"You would think that." Five said, locking his phone.

"Here's your alibi." Coulson held out a few blue index cards to the billionaire.

"Okay."

"You were on your yacht." Coulson said.

"Yeah." Tony muttered.

"We have port papers that put you and Doctor Hargreeves in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests."

"See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper and me, alone on the island." Tony shot Pepper a grin, who just finished peeling off the bandages from his skin and turned away, hiding a small smile of her own.

"That's what happened."

"All right."

"Just read it, word for word." Coulson stated. Tony looked through the cards, frowning.

"There's nothing about Stane here."

"That's being handled. He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record." Five frowned.

"What about that whole cover story that it's a bodyguard?" Five wondered. "I mean... it seems a little flimsy, is all." Tony nodded his agreement.

"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr Stark, Dr Hargreeves." Coulson said, keeping his expression blank. "Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will all be behind you." Five snorted. "You've got 90 seconds." Pepper walked after Coulson, and vaguely Five could hear her thanking him but tuned it out.

"So, I was thinking about what my name should be." Five said casually.

"Oh yeah?"

"Well, my Umbrella Academy name was the Teleporter, which was just unoriginal and dumb." Five said, Tony agreeing. "When i was with... my previous occupation, they had two names for me. Darkside, and Hermes." Tony mulled it over.

"I like Hermes." He agreed. "It has a nice ring to it. Greek God of travel and all that."

"That's what I thought." Five agreed.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Pepper interrupted, bringing Tony's jacket over.

"You know, it's actually not that bad." Tony said casually, walking over. "Even I don't think I'm Iron Man."

"You're not Iron Man." Pepper grinned, helping him into his jacket.

"Am so."

"You're not."

"All right, suit yourself. You know, if I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She'd be a wreck, 'cause she'd always be worrying that I was gonna die yet so proud of the man I'd become." Five walked past them, originally planning on listening in, only to get a call from an unknown number. He stepped away, answering it.

"Hello?"

" _Well, we've been busy, haven't we?_ " Five frowned at the unfamiliar voice.

"Who is this?"

" _Oh, that hurts. Forgotten me already, have you Five?_ " Something clicks in his mind and he freezes, paling so rapidly that Pepper, who was waiting for him, could see it.

"What the fuck do you want?" Five managed, getting his voice back.

" _Oh come now, Five. I want the same things I've always wanted. You, that silly little team of yours, back where you belong, by my side. But since I know that's not going to happen I'll settle for a favour._ "

"What kind of favour?"

" _I'll be in touch._ " The call clicked off and Five sucked in a breath, shaking his head with true fear in his chest.

"Five?" Pepper put a hand on his forearm gently, getting his attention. "What's wrong?"

"I... it's not important." Five cleared his throat. "Go, watch the conference. I'll be there in a minute." Pepper did, knowing that he'd want some alone time, and Five took a minute to compose himself. And then, just at the same second Five got back into hearing range, Tony did a stupid thing.

" _...I am Iron Man._ "

"Oh for fuck sake, Tony."  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> authors note  
> i am so not satisfied with this ending. i had such a fantastic idea, but i bloody forgot to write it down! so, if anyone has any ideas on other suggestions, i'm all ears
> 
> this is officially the end of phase 2! thank you for everyone who stuck with me through this journey!
> 
> ima be straight, i have like half a dozen ideas for phase 3, but honestly i'm not sure where it's going yet. stay tuned, and hopefully i'll have the first part up in the following weeks

**Author's Note:**

> WELCOME TO PHASE 2 OF THIS FANFICTION EVERYONE.
> 
> i've got the entire section written, just got some minor editing to do and, if i can figure it out, gifs to insert.
> 
> once again this fic is also on wattpad under The Adventures of a Time Travelling Assassin.
> 
> i have some arcs written for part three, which is going to be based on the backstory of one specific character and how he re-unites with five. it is already started, but i hate how it's progressed so quickly so i'm editing it
> 
> hope to have this part finished by x-mas day!!
> 
> enjoy!!
> 
> (disclaimer; i do not own any of the gif's used in this fic, they belong to their creators i got them from google people)


End file.
